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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29321697">shame on everyone (involved)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/andawaywego/pseuds/andawaywego'>andawaywego</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Accidental Exhibitionism, Accidental Voyeurism, Crack Treated Seriously, F/F, Hannah is a voyeur, I promise, Sexual Content, like canonically, not in a creepy way, so she's a bit of a peep-and-creep in this, swears!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 10:07:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,646</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29321697</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/andawaywego/pseuds/andawaywego</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"This is really none of Hannah’s business. She should slip away now, go back to her bed where Owen is waiting for her, likely fast asleep. But she’s so concerned that the slightest sound of her leaving will startle them both, scare them away from hashing out the thing they’re edging around.</p><p>Which, she believes it’s safe to assume, is this: Jamie finally kissing Dani; finally dragging their odd, but dear courtship into the light."</p><p>[Dani and Jamie getting together through Hannah's (reluctant) perspective.]</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dani Clayton/Jamie, mostly background Hannah/Owen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>185</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>shame on everyone (involved)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i always have Hannah walking in on them in fics bc she's such a little voyeur. this is a love letter to that fun character trait.</p><p>writing this, i was reminded (very distantly) of something (not quite) similar (except not at all) in another fandom, but i might have dreamt that. but if it exists, shout out to the mystery human responsible!</p><p>anyway. i hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I just like to watch you guys.”</p><p>— Denny, <em>The Room</em> (2003)</p><p>
  <b>..</b>
</p><p> </p><p>“Can I just get a minute or two before I let you shove me out the door?”</p><p>At the edge of the bed where she is slipping her robe on, Hannah halts and turns around to find Owen looking at her through half-lidded eyes. He is already half-asleep, as he usually is after, and he has his hand stretched out toward her, trying to beckon her back. He wants to touch her, she understands, like he always does (<em>during; before; always</em>) and he is the only partner she’s had who longs to give affection freely. It aches a bit, standing there out of his arms, as it usually does when she cannot fall into him.</p><p>The sight of him never fails to light a bloom of warmth in her chest; there’s a voice in her head begging her to fall back into bed, but she doesn’t. “I do not <em>shove</em> you out the door,” she says.</p><p>“I know, I know.” He waves a hand at her apologetically, trying to swipe his error out of existence. “But you’re certainly in a hurry to be rid of me tonight.”</p><p>“I am never in a hurry to get rid of you.” She takes a step closer to him, knees hitting the edge of her bed. “I was simply going to fetch some water. You can handle a few minutes on your own, surely.”</p><p>He mumbles something that her ears can’t quite pick up before: “Yes, alright. I will just lie in this lonely bed without you,” he says dramatically, reaching out a hand to rest it warmly on her hip, “like a lonely loner. Alone.”</p><p>“Oh, shush.”</p><p>This gets her a cheeky smile. “Only kidding,” he says. “It’s not as if you don’t make me do the same to you every night.”</p><p>Ice water slips down Hannah’s spine. He says with the air of a joke, but there’s sincerity in the way his smile falters. “Owen—” she begins, but she doesn’t finish.</p><p>“I don’t mean to guilt you,” he says. “It’s just that I really don’t think anyone here would care if I were to come out of your bedroom tomorrow morning. That’s all.”</p><p>“I’d like to believe that, love, but—”</p><p>“Really,” he says, sitting up a little now, perhaps so she’ll take what he’s saying a little more seriously. “Yes, okay, Dani might turn bright red and look fit to pop in that way she does. And Jamie will crack a few jokes. But the kids are used to me being around for breakfast anyway.” He laughs, a little lost to himself. “There wouldn’t really be breakfast without me.”</p><p>Hannah stands there and blinks, watching the way the light of the moon slips through the window and over the curve of his cheekbone, his nose. That silly glint in his eyes that he gets whenever he’s trying to make a point. She sighs and grabs the hand from her hip, cradling it in both of hers. “It isn’t that I want you to go,” she begins, and Owen deflates in anticipation, “but the last thing the children need is another upheaval. We all have to work and live together.”</p><p>She doesn’t say outright that she is terrified of ruining this tender balance they’ve fallen into since Dani arrived and the children warmed up to her—stopped asking after Rebecca, tucked away in London, as much. Tipping the scales in the wrong direction. Sending it all off the edge to shatter on the cold ground.</p><p>And Owen—lovely and kind and unruly Owen, so gentle and loving and <em>home</em>—understands the things that she is not saying and pushes the subject no further. Changes tactics entirely because that is who he is.</p><p>“You know what?” he says, a joking little to his voice.</p><p>“What?” Hannah asks, already nervous for the next part.</p><p>“I think you’re just scared of letting them see you as a human being.”</p><p>She rolls her eyes, a strange action; like something she might do in another life. “You’re ridiculous.”</p><p>“No, really!” Owen continues. “Admit it: you liked it better when we all thought you were some kind of heartless robot.”</p><p>She ignores him and says, “I’m going now,” as she leans down to press a kiss to the side of his face. “I’ll be back, yes? And then I’ll walk you out.”</p><p>Even as he looks disoriented, disappointment lines his expression. “Yes, dear.” He lies down and rolls over until it’s his back she’s looking at. “Forgive me if I doze until then.”</p><p>Hannah stares at him for a very long moment, tracing the shape of him in the darkness. Memorizing it and letting the deep-set longing, that wish to be in his arms again, settle into her bones. “I won’t be long,” she says quietly, tying her robe firmly at her waist, and he grumbles something in return.</p><p>Slipping out into the long hallway, she is immediately reminded of the immense size of the manor. In the daylight, it looms larger than life, but it’s the darkness that makes her understand how empty it really is, how immense. That strange feeling that takes up residence beneath her skin as she makes her way across creaky floorboards, like peals of thunder in the sharp silence. Sneaking Owen out every night means making this journey with twice the noise; two people shuffling along rather than one. Towards the beginning of this whole thing, this hadn’t necessarily been much of a problem, but then it changed.</p><p>It came to mean sneaking past Dani, burning the midnight oil with a book in the sitting room. It came to mean nearly being caught more than once. And then a funny thing happened:</p><p>Jamie started sticking around every night after dinner and made it all much more difficult.</p><p>Truly, she is glad that they have warmed up to one another. Lord knows they each deserve a good friend, closer to their age, in their lives. Dani has a way of making Jamie stick around and Jamie loosens the coiled springs in Dani’s spine; makes her breathe easier and clearer. Smile wider and laugh longer.</p><p>There is an edge of something else there, of course, that Hannah has been trying to keep from acknowledging. Certainly she learned how to do this the hard way when it came to Rebecca and Peter, but there is also the act of discovery for her to consider. And Dani and Jamie both deserve the chance to work it out on their own.</p><p>So Hannah keeps her lips pressed tight, her eyes fixed somewhere else, and allows it to exist just on the periphery of her influence. Those long stares; conversations in low, intimate voices; the way Jamie places her hand on Dani’s lower back when they walk together, guiding and protecting her the same. Keeping her close. And, yes, it toes the strict lines of professionalism that she holds both herself and Owen to, but, oh: isn’t it lovely to see the way they evolve with one another?</p><p>It’s strangely fascinating and endearing to bear witness to their unconventional courtship. Hannah hardly stops smiling when she sees the two of them together.</p><p>Which they usually are at this hour, talking in the sitting room, inching closer and closer as the night draws on. As she is anticipating, the lights are on in there, though she cannot hear a thing. She walks carefully past the doorway, unwilling to interrupt them. As she nears the kitchen, she allows herself to take less care with each movement. After all, it shouldn’t be too strange a sight to see her getting a glass of water at this hour.</p><p>She is just passing the kitchen table when she finally hears them: a stilted conversation just down the hallway. It sounds different than their usual talks. The energy of it crackles and zips over her skin, and then she realizes that there are footsteps coming for the kitchen and Hannah does the worst thing she could probably do in that moment:</p><p>She hides.</p><p>She ducks herself into the alcove on the far side of the room, the little hallway that leads to the garden door, and slips into the shadows. A moment later, Dani enters the kitchen, eyes wild and hand lifted to her lips. She rubs them a little, looking morose and entirely lost in thought, and then Jamie is coming in after, wringing her hands nervously in front of herself.</p><p>“Dani, wait, I—” she is saying, coming to a halt just beside the counter and Dani stops and turns to look at her, some unreadable expression on her face. </p><p>“Jamie,” says Dani, her voice breathy and fluttering like the wind. “You— Why did—?”</p><p>Whatever she is trying to say goes unfinished as she simply falls into silence. Her shoulders are set in a clear show of consternation, while Jamie’s posture is one of obvious repentance. Jamie lifts a hand and runs her fingers through her hair, avoiding looking at Dani directly. So used to the way Jamie takes up space, larger and braver than anyone else Hannah has ever known, seeing her so sunken into herself is a particularly strange thing.</p><p>“I’m so sorry, Poppins,” she says, and it’s so sincere and broken that Hannah longs to reveal herself, if only to comfort her. “I didn’t mean to— I mean...I meant to, but I shouldn’t have...done that. I just thought— No, that’s not an excuse, I’m just...I’m sorry. <em>Christ</em>.” As she speaks, face bathed in a soft-orange glow from the light above the oven, she raises head finally and looks directly at the woman standing, stuck frozen, in front of her.</p><p>Dani’s is still holding her hand up, tracing her lips with her fingertips, breathing too heavily to be normal.</p><p>
  <em>Well, then.</em>
</p><p>This is really none of Hannah’s business. She should slip away now, go back to her bed where Owen is waiting for her, likely fast asleep. But she’s so concerned that the slightest sound of her leaving will startle them both, scare them away from hashing out the thing they’re edging around.</p><p>Which, she believes it’s safe to assume, is this: Jamie finally kissing Dani; finally dragging their odd, but dear courtship into the light. </p><p>Unfortunately, this seems to have caused a bit of a problem.</p><p>Dani lets her hand fall away from her mouth. “I don’t want you to…” she says, but she stops short, reaching that hand towards Jamie. There’s a casual confidence to the gesture, just something that she’s used to doing, but then she seems to think better of it and lets her hand fall back to her side. “Please don’t be sorry. I just...I was...I wasn’t expecting that.”</p><p>The effect of her words on Jamie is visible—she jolts and then the corners of her lips begin to turn up with tentative hope. “I should…” She shakes her head and clears her throat. “I should have warned you.”</p><p>“Yeah, well,” whispers Dani.</p><p>And, just like that, the faint traces of confidence in Jamie’s expression are scrubbed clean. “Right,” she says, standing a bit taller as she tries to gather what remains of her dignity into her arms to take with her. “I’ll just…I’m sorry.” She takes a few steps forward, making to pass Dani on her way to the hallway, presumably to the front door, but Dani steps in front of her before she can get very far.</p><p>“Don’t go,” she says, voice curling into something more steadfast. She catches one of Jamie’s hands in her own and straightens her shoulders. “I don’t...I don’t want you to go.”</p><p>Jamie seems bombstruck by this revelation and Hannah can’t blame her. There is a glimpse of the girl Dani doesn’t allow herself to be in the way she speaks. The air thickens desperately and it would be clear to anyone in Hannah’s same position what is coming next. “You don’t?” she asks, careful.</p><p>“No,” says Dani, stepping a little closer. “You didn’t...<em>force</em> yourself on me.” </p><p>She trails her hand up Jamie’s arm, sliding it to her shoulder and around her neck, until her fingers disappear into messy curls. One of them takes a sharp breath—probably Jamie, who is placing her own hands on Dani’s hips. Slowly. As if anticipated that, any moment, she’s going to be shoved away. </p><p>“What do you want, then?” comes the next act of courage.</p><p>Dani hesitates this time, as if summoning every part of her to voice her next thought, which is this: “I want you to kiss me again.”</p><p>This is not a surprise, of course; Hannah’s been expecting it. All the same: her heart throbs at the rare reveal of such a simple truth. In her mind, she imagines stepping out of the shadows, announcing herself so that she can leave them to huddle into this newfound intimacy in private. But she is so frightened that doing so will scare away any and all fortitude they have each gathered as their own.</p><p>So she simply stands there, hidden in the shadows, as her veins bite beneath her skin, filled with guilt and a strange sort of pride, the static charge of a brewing storm juddering through the air.</p><p>Dani and Jamie are standing very close together, but neither of them moves. Still, there is a tension between them that Hannah recognizes. A tension that says: I will never forgive myself if this ends poorly. Yes. That same tension that had been in the air the first time Owen caught her cheek in his palm and leaned down can be seen here; the pair of them are golden-eyed and desperate for something they’ve been too frightened to name. Dani’s eyes flutter over Jamie’s candle-bright face, possibly reaching the same conclusion Hannah had in her own mirrored moment: that pride and fear are no match for people with blazing-red hearts and electricity shining through their skin.</p><p>People like Owen. People like Jamie.</p><p>The tension is shattered by one snap of crooked lightning, by the fever-flare of desire and pent-up prurience; Dani and Jamie come crashing together furiously.</p><p>One of Dani’s hands comes up to cup Jamie’s jaw, pulling her mouth harder into her own. Eyes shut tightly, pouring months of emotion into every movement. Jamie does the same, pressing in with all the ferocity of a pining teenager; anxious and eager, clutching Dani close by the belt loops as if to say: <em>let me keep you please please let me keep you.</em> </p><p>It is clunky at first, teeth-clacking and bumping noses as they try to figure out what they each like. How to come together the right way, wanting so much to <em>learn</em>; do it <em>right.</em></p><p>Strange to attend, but certainly familiar. Hannah has drowned beneath it so many times with Owen. Lovely Owen and his soft hands, gentle touch. The way he whispers verses from the more salacious books of the Bible, just to make her laugh, to make her push at his shoulders and tuck her face into his neck. Feeling the profound thump of his pulse against her cheek.</p><p>Dani is leaning heavily against the center counter. Normally so tightly wound, it is jarring to see her so wanton and desperate. Likewise, what an odd experience to witness Jamie so vulnerable, her face ducked into Dani’s neck as Dani combs her fingers through her hair, tugging her up into another kiss.</p><p>“<em>Jamie</em>,” Dani breathes, and it’s so shameless and enamored that Hannah blinks in surprise.</p><p>It must catch Jamie off guard, too, though in a much different way. She gasps against Dani’s mouth and kisses her again. Her hands fumble against Dani’s stomach, struggling a little, and it isn’t until Dani reaches down to tug the hem of her sweater from the tuck of her jeans that Hannah understands. Jamie slides one of her hands inside and then up, the outline of its movements and explorations visible through the fabric.</p><p>Yes, well, Hannah hadn’t exactly expected to end her night like this. She longs to be in bed with Owen again, warm and wanted. How desperately she wishes for this, but it’s pointless because she is stuck. She is stuck in a corner and two of her friends—and <em>work colleagues</em> at that—are about to have sex on the kitchen counter.</p><p>“God, Dani,” says Jamie, the words hanging sharp in her throat. Dani’s breath has become so rough and hard that Hannah almost doesn’t hear it. “Fuck, I’ve wanted to do this for forever.” Her hand shifts beneath Dani’s sweater and Dani whines, high in her throat, falling onto her elbows on the counter, trying to keep herself up.</p><p>“Me—oh, God—me too. So long. Do you know how...how gorgeous you are? Jesus. Jamie...just <em>fuck me</em> already.” Her words are barely more than gasps for breath, staggered and broken and muffled, her forehead resting on Jamie’s shoulder, hands clawing at her back.</p><p>And though she’s practically doing that already, Jamie draws away to scan Dani’s face for any sign of hesitation. “Poppins,” she says softly, “are you sure?” Even as she speaks, she’s undoing Dani’s belt, then her button, and, finally, her zipper, but she stops here. Waiting.</p><p>Dani presses her forehead against Jamie’s, cupping the back of her neck with her hand. She nods, whispering, “Yes,” and then reaches down to grab Jamie’s hand and guide it toward her undone jeans. “Jamie...please fuck me.”</p><p>“<em>Thank fuck</em>,” says Jamie in a harsh murmur, and she slips her hand down and inside Dani’s jeans so slowly that it feels too obscene and private to even recognize as an actual thing that’s happening.</p><p>Hannah darts her eyes away, fixing them on a random point in the darkness of her alcove, but she can still hear them. Still knows what they’re doing out there.</p><p>“Oh, my God,” Dani gasps. And Hannah doesn’t see it, but her eyelids flutter and her breath staggers, harsher than before. “Please, Jay.” She grips Jamie’s wrist and presses it down harder, grinding against it.</p><p>Jamie watches her face as she does this, then kisses her. Gently this time.  Still impassioned, yes, but with a newly-found and expansive intimacy. “Dani,” she says. Another kiss. “You’re so—”</p><p>“Your fault. All your fault,” Dani babbles. “I don’t think I’ve—<em>Jesus</em>...stopped thinking about you for a...for one second since we—<em>ah</em>—met.”</p><p>“Me, too,” Jamie breathes. “Dani...me, too.”</p><p>Their next kiss is passion-drunk and sloppy. Way too much tongue. Hannah accidentally glances towards them and winces at the sight. Dani lets herself be pushed backwards until she’s resting on her back, blindly reaching out for something to hold onto and coming up short. Jamie bends to hover over her, to keep kissing her, and Dani begins to thrust her own hips up against the other woman’s hand, spine arching to get closer.</p><p>It gets much faster after that: the pace of Jamie’s thrusting escalating and Dani trying her best to keep up, bucking into each movement.</p><p>“You are so,” Jamie begins, her voice breathy and awe-struck, “so incredible, doll.”</p><p>Somehow, Dani manages a bit of a laugh between her panting. “You’re...you’re not so bad yourself,” she says and then the words turn into a whine as Jamie’s mouth returns to her neck. “Oh! Jay...Jamie...right there. Yes, that’s gonna be so—” and then her words bite off, hips bucking forward, and she gasps.</p><p>It’s loud. So loud that Hannah is thankful for the size of the house; grateful that it will swallow the volume and keep anyone upstairs from hearing too.</p><p>Jamie catches her next noise in a harsh kiss as Dani pushes against her one last time before shuddering, grinning and pliant. Hannah is thinking of other things with her eyes shut and her hands pressed against her ears to block the sounds like a child. It doesn’t work very well, but the point is that she’s trying. Even as she’s trapped.</p><p>In the kitchen, where Hannah is very much not looking, Jamie holds Dani to her with both arms, pressing kiss after kiss to her hair, the crown of her head. Loving and languid. All the time in the world.</p><p>Dani blinks her eyes open after a little while and whispers, “Hey,” with a sleepy and dazed smile.</p><p>Jamie grins. “Hey, yourself.” Briefly, she succumbs to insecurity and chokes out: “So...that was...pretty great, if I’m being honest. More than.”</p><p>Instead of pushing away or disputing her almost childish observation like Jamie is clearly expecting, Dani cranes her neck up and kisses her. “More than,” she agrees. “Amazing.” They kiss again and, though it begins passive and quiet, it does not stay that way for very long.</p><p>Hannah, no longer wishing away the outside world, lets herself recognize that emotion, even from afar. Owen sets fire to it every time they are together, so unlike anyone else. It’s different with him, and not simply because he’s the first man she’s been with since—</p><p>No, it’s something else. Something that she hasn’t had the courage to put a name on yet, but, if she did, it would sound a lot like:</p><p>“I’m in love with you. You know that, right?”</p><p>Dani is standing upright again, and it’s <em>her</em> hands that have begun trailing down this time. But Jamie’s confession cuts her short; Dani looks lightning-struck and there’s one dreadful moment when Hannah can taste sympathetic rejection on the tip of her tongue before—</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>Jamie blinks. “Oh. Nice.”</p><p>A hand comes up to cup her cheek, to draw her into another slow kiss. “I love you, too,” Dani says, dotting kisses over Jamie’s cheeks. “You know that, right?”</p><p>“I do now.”</p><p>Whatever they’d been moving toward just moments before comes to a halt, long enough for them to embrace. Dani tucks her face into Jamie’s neck, their arms wrapped so tightly around one another that Hannah can’t remember what they looked like apart.</p><p>Muffled, Jamie says, “Would ya’ mind if we move this somewhere horizontal? And comfortable?” and Dani gives her a watery chuckle as they pull apart. Jamie cups her cheeks, brushing her tears away with her thumbs.</p><p>“Yeah,” Dani breathes. “My legs should hold me now.”</p><p>Jamie laughs, bright and jarring. “I shouldn’t be proud of that, should I?”</p><p>“Maybe not,” Dani says, but she’s smiling too. “Come on. I haven’t even touched you yet.” She pushes on Jamie’s shoulders, giving herself more room to slide her feet to the floor. When she goes to button her jeans, she’s stopped with a hand on her wrist.</p><p>“Don’t bother,” Jamie says. “Just going to have to undo them anyway.”</p><p>Rolling her eyes, Dani kisses her again and then pulls away. “We’ll have to be quiet.”</p><p>“Are you capable of that?”</p><p>“I plan on it being <em>your</em> problem. Not mine.”</p><p>Jamie laughs, delighted, and lets herself be led out of the kitchen and away. The moment they’re gone, Hannah slumps against the wall at her back with a leadened sigh. She reaches up to clutch her necklace, remembering too late that it’s resting on the table beside her bed at the moment.</p><p>“Lord,” she says, “grant me strength.”</p><p>_______</p><p>Owen only startles awake when Hannah slips back into her bed, shedding her robe as she goes and sliding beneath the covers until they’re pressed together. His face is so beautifully expressive, one of the few people she has met who has never bothered to hide his emotions away. He catches her hip in his hand and snuggles closer, moonlight dancing in his eyes as he smiles.</p><p>“Shouldn’t you be showing me the door, Miss Grose?” he asks. He’s mussed and tired and handsome and Hannah loves him so much that she almost doesn’t hear a word he says.</p><p>“Perhaps,” she says, once her mind catches up. “But I love you and I’m not sure I can pretend not to any longer.”</p><p>“You love me?” Owen asks, his voice catching on the words.</p><p>Hannah nods. “Yes,” she says, and then in a sort of echo of Dani’s earlier sentiment, adds, “I don’t want you to go.”</p><p>Owen grins. “Then I won’t,” he says.</p><p>Then, blessedly: “I love you, too.”</p><p>He kisses her and it’s slower, firmer, than Hannah is expecting. Or, she thinks, she could be losing her mind. After what she’s just witnessed, it wouldn’t necessarily be a surprise. It’s quiet, though, which means Jamie must be capable of more control than Dani is; something that is mildly frightening to know.</p><p>“And,” she says when Owen pulls away a little, “if either Jamie or Dani says a word, I have plenty of intimate details to hold over their heads.”</p><p>Owen mumbles in agreement, kissing up and down Hannah’s neck, clearly so lost in the action that he hasn’t quite heard her. That’s just as well. Hannah wraps her arms around him and pulls him closer.</p><p>It isn’t until much later, once they’re tucked beneath the covers and spent again, that it catches up with him and he frowns, thumbing at her cheek, eyes mirthful as he looks at her.</p><p>“Wait. You have <em>what</em>?”</p><p>______</p><p>Annoyingly, Owen is absolutely correct: there is nothing to worry about the next morning. Flora and Miles don’t even notice that Owen is wearing the same clothes he had been the day before. They’re too distracted telling him what shape they want their pancakes in for that. </p><p>By the time Dani and Jamie join them, young and beaming golden and clean, they’re all seated at the table and conversing normally. Regularly. Just another morning.</p><p>“Good morning, ladies,” Hannah says. She makes sure to oversaturate the words with enough weight that it will be impossible to misinterpret what she says next: “You look like you had a good night.”</p><p>Dani turns so red that Hannah is, just as Owen said, worried she might pop. Jamie flits between a look of pride and confusion dizzyingly, like she can’t settle on what to think. The children continue eating and chattering at one another, entirely unaware, but Owen nods in understanding.</p><p>“They do, don’t they?” he says, lips twisting up in an impish smile. “Would one of you be a dear and wipe down the counter over there?” He nods toward it. “I think someone forgot to last night.”</p><p>Hannah laughs and takes a well-timed sip of her tea.</p><p>“I, um...I forgot that I have to go...be somewhere else,” Dani sputters and then turns on her heel and flits out of the room quickly.</p><p>Jamie watches her go and then turns to Owen, who holds a hand up in offering. She slaps it with her own and, feeling caught and delighted, Hannah can’t help it; she offers her own next and Jamie high-fives her with a happy grin.</p><p>“Congratulations, dear,” Hannah says and Jamie laughs, shaking her head.</p><p>“I’m not sure I want to know, Han,” she says. “But thank you.” </p><p>“You’re welcome. Now <em>go</em>.” She nods to the doorway through which Dani just disappeared. “When a woman runs off like that, you’re supposed to go after her.”</p><p>Jamie blinks and then throws out an artless double thumbs-up. “Right,” she says and then she’s leaving too, her boots drumming down the hallway as she chases after Dani.</p><p>“It will never be boring here, will it?” Hannah says to Owen, who takes a sip of his own tea and shakes his head.</p><p>“Never,” he answers, and then winks. “But you absolutely love it, don’t you?”</p><p>Something in Hannah’s chest blooms, buds, swells. Bites at her throat and makes her voice feel weak and shaky as she realizes two things with all the clarity of a mirror being shattered:</p>
<ol>
<li>

<p>She absolutely does</p>
</li>
<li>

<p>She is never stepping foot outside her room at night again (never, ever, ever).</p>
</li>
</ol><p> </p><p>...</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>the title is from a Portlandia sketch. obviously the quote is from The Room. also quoted I.T. Crowd but...shrug. </p><p>pls come bother me on <a href="https://andawaywego.tumblr.com/">tumblr</a> so we can talk about Hannah and her morally questionable choices.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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